The Danbury Wrestling team isn't used to losing, especially not twice in a week.

With a quick start that included three wins by pin in the first four matches, Danbury showed it's still the class of the FCIAC with a 52-20 victory over Warde in a dual meet Wednesday at Danbury High.

Danbury (11-2), the state's top-ranked team, suffered a pair of setbacks last week to Mt. Anthony, Vt. and three-time defending New England champion Timberlane, N.H. It might not have been what the Hatters were used to, but the losses seemed to get them ready for one of their biggest matches of the conference season.

"It's been a rough week, we haven't lost two times in a week probably since I've been here which is 20 years or so," Danbury coach Rick Shook said. "We didn't wrestle all that well in our last match, we were a little flat, but we had a lot of good matches and my guys are battle tested."

The Hatters came out and took control from the openeing match and never trailed. Danbury won 10 of the 14 matches and showed no ill effects from the out-of-state losses, if anything they could turn out to be a good thing for the Hatters as they prepare for the home stretch of their schedule.

"We were more prepared mentally to wrestle tonight," Shook said. "Sometimes a loss is the best thing for a team to get better mentally."

In the closest match, Danbury's Raymond Nunez outlasted Anthony Rotz 5-4 to put Danbury on top 9-0. The match ended with Rotz frantically working over the last 20 seconds to get behind Nunez for a takedown, but he just couldn't find a way to get it done before the final horn.

Warde finally got on the board with a pin by Thomas Anania at 182 pounds to make it 21-6. However, the Mustangs' momentum was short-lived as Joe Peterson came out at 195 and made short work of Jordi Proskinitopoulos with a first-period pin to extend the Danbury lead to 27-6.

"Danbury is an excellent team and I knew it was going to be a challenging match because we didn't match up well with them," Warde coach Jason Shaughnessey said. "When you go into a dual meet and some of your best kids are matched up with their best kids and their kids win you're in trouble. Dual meets are about matchups and we don't matchup very well with Danbury."